Cigarette smoking linked to risk of hearing loss, study suggests

03/15/2018

Reuters (3/14, Rapaport) reports that a Japanese study found that smokers may have a higher likelihood of developing hearing loss than nonsmokers. The researchers looked at data from 50,000 Japanese workers aged 20 to 64 and discovered that people who smoked were 60 percent more likely to develop “high-frequency hearing loss” than nonsmokers. The study was published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (3/14, Parker) reports that the researchers further found that the risk of hearing loss increased with the number of cigarettes smoked per day and that “hearing loss risks declined within five years for those who quit.”